Check out 150 vendors at annual home show

Home owners will have rows and rows of vendors to check out at the 12th Annual Eastern Pennsylvania Fall Home Show.

Home owners will have rows and rows of vendors to check out at the 12th Annual Eastern Pennsylvania Fall Home Show. (MORNING CALL FILE PHOTO)

Mariella MillerSpecial to The Morning Call

What to look for at the fall home show.

As fall seems to sprint by, a winter that is predicted to be as bad or worse than last year's is peering around the next corner.

The possibility of another polar vortex is enough for us to bar the windows and doors, hunker down and try make our homes as warm and comfortable as possible.

Enter the 12th Annual Fall Eastern Pennsylvania Home Show, Saturday and Sunday at the Agri-Plex at the Allentown Fairgrounds.

Homeowners, do-it-yourselfers and anyone else trying to stay make it through another long winter can find everything they need to make that happen under one roof this weekend. More than 150 companies will be on hand, from window installers to basement waterproofers to closet creators and bathroom renovators.

"This year people continue to look for ways to save energy," says Charmagne Harris, show coordinator for Jenks Productions of Wethersfield, Conn., show organizer.

"We're finding that for our fall home shows, people are interested in increased and better insulation. Also, they want windows, doors, siding and roofing," she says.

But that's not all. For a lot of folks, getting through the winter includes a home renovation project to keep you busy.

How bout a facelift for your kitchen?

This year solid surfaces are popular in the kitchen as an alternative to marble or granite, says Harris. Stone, cambria and some composites look great and don't stain.

Indeed, a concrete surface is one that Maui Kitchens of Bethlehem will have on display, says owner David Iacovone.

But the innovations don't stop there for the guy who invites his clients to take a vacation from remodeling and go with Maui. OK, it's not a trip to Hawaii, but the name is catchy, right?

"It's your own private island," Iacovone says, joking.

But seriously, Iacovone has a "big understanding" of what goes into a kitchen, he says, because he's also a chef. He knows what people who cook want in a kitchen: storage, access, better lighting and more.

Trending these days are wooden range hoods. There's no more microwave over the stove, he says.

The range hood gives the look of having furniture in the kitchen.

But where did the microwave go?

"That's now in a microwave drawer," he says, "It's much safer there." You're no longer pulling hot coffee or soup down from eye-level, he says. You're much less likely to spill it and burn yourself when you pull from a lower point.

"We get a lot of customers from the repair side of our business," Weil says.

Some of the grandfather clocks are new, some are refurbished and some are antique, she says. Refurbished clocks are the ones whose moving parts, or works, have been restored, she says. It's unusual for anything to be done to the beautiful wood on the outside of the clock.

Weil and her partner and husband Rick started doing big home shows in the early 1990s. They were limited to Christmas time before that, and were usually found only in malls.

Now that the economy is picking up a bit, sales of luxury items are following suit, she says.

Prices can be as high as hundreds to thousands of dollars, or as low as $1,500.

But getting back to the polar vortex and staying warm this winter.

The Edwin Stipe Co., based in Easton, loves home shows to show off new technology, says Roy Young, the company's general manager.

When it's time to replace or upgrade a heating system, Young says, he finds there are two camps:

The first is the customer who is interested in a basic furnace and can't really afford to care about efficiency.

Then there's the customer who wants to control his thermostat from the beach.

The first customer is fine with a furnace being, on average, 80 percent efficient, Young says, and that's fine.

But Edwin Stipe Co. also has all the bells and whistles that will satisfy the techie.

At the show, for example, the company will show a gas boiler, a tankless water heater, a high efficiency gas furnace and a ductless heater.

Usually a water heater will contain 50 or 80 gallons of hot water and when it's done, your shower gets chilly real quick.

"But the tankless water heater doesn't heat until you ask it to, but it heats the water as fast as you use it," Young says.

Young says the company also has computer-controlled systems that work well even when temperatures dip to 0 degrees. An average heat pump works well until the outdoor temp falls below 32 degrees.

"What you want is the highest Seasonal Energy Efficiency Rating, or SEER, you can get. The minimum you can buy now is 13 SEER, but the industry is trying to get rid of those. A SEER of 20 is dramatically more efficient," he says.

Of course the most efficient is a geothermal heating system that requires drilling 50-foot deep holes in a customer's yard. The installation cost is high — up to $30,000 — but a third comes back in tax relief immediately, Young says. And there is very little cost involved once the system is in place. It also has a SEER of 40 so you know it's about as efficient as you can get.

Of course, all this techno talk will bore the children, so if they're in tow, the home show offers some treats.

The Lehigh Valley Garden Railroaders will provide a display of trains, bridges, tunnels and signals to keep kids mesmerized. And at the Home Depot Kids Workshop, children can create a project at no cost.